


Catch

by explorerseel8



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types, 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: Alternate Universe - Pokemon, Attempt at Humor, Bakugou Katsuki Has A Deadly Net, Bakugou Katsuki Swears A Lot, Bakugou Katsuki is Bad at Feelings, Bakugou Katsuki is a Little Shit, Comedy, Crack, Crushes, Falling In Love, Fluff, Fluff and Crack, Idiots in Love, Love at First Sight, M/M, Midoriya Izuku is a Ray of Sunshine, Pokemon, Pre-Relationship, Rated teen and up for language, Soft Bakugou Katsuki, Soft Todoroki Shouto, Todoroki Shouto is a Berry Thief, Todoroki Shouto is a Dork, Todoroki Shouto is a Little Shit, Tsundere Bakugou Katsuki, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-13
Updated: 2021-02-13
Packaged: 2021-03-12 23:21:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,855
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29392584
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/explorerseel8/pseuds/explorerseel8
Summary: Katsuki Bakugo had a steady life. Sure, sometimes his Pokémon were pieces of shit, and Midoriya came to visit him too much, and his house was too close to the main route, but it washislife.And then some trainer with obnoxiously multicolored hair and a shitty sense of humor begins stealing his Sitrus Berries religiously, and Bakugo couldn't let that slide. (And maybe that trainer happens to be really fucking cute, and Bakugo might be the tiniest bit in love, but nobody has to know that.)
Relationships: Bakugou Katsuki & Midoriya Izuku, Bakugou Katsuki/Todoroki Shouto
Comments: 5
Kudos: 43





	Catch

**Author's Note:**

> I used to read a lot of the Pokémon manga (I only remember the first four generations) and I absolutely loved it, and seeing as I've kind of forgotten about it over the years, this is my tribute to the franchise.

Bakugo barely paid attention to the stout little tree in the front yard.

It was just _there_. Bakugo had never bothered uprooting it despite having no use for the berries (Potions were more efficient anyways). He didn't really want to kill it either, so he left it by the window. It didn't need much water, so unless it hadn't rained in weeks he left it alone. That, at least, was a plus. He was usually terrible with plants ("I'm not watering them! Let them get their own damn water!" he often said) and it wasn't an uncommon occurrence for them to die under his watch.

_Fuck plants_.

He'd moved into his house a while ago. It was actually his grandmother's, but seeing as she was staying with his parents for her health and there had been a random empty house sitting out in the middle of nowhere, Bakugo's parents had decided it would be a good idea to let him go out and get some experience as a trainer. The house was right next to a route leading into the main town, which made it the perfect place to level up his Pokémon. It had been strange at first, and, though he hated to admit it, a little lonely, but it had been a year and Bakugo was already settling in. Midoriya, a childhood friend, lived in the town and came to check in often, which was nice of him. And it was great, and all, but there was the _tree_. It blocked the window and the roots were growing into the sidewalk, but Bakugo didn't have the heart to kill it.

In the fall and winter seasons it stayed proud and scraggly near the living room window in a ring of tiny bushes, branches spindly and brittle in cold air. The leaves would turn shades of brown and gold and drop down to pile at the roots before turning white with frost as the months became colder, the branches bare of any growth. Bakugo let it be during those times, ignoring it other than to chip away the ice when it snowed particularly hard, which it rarely did. It was decent at taking care of itself, and if it was _really_ going to die Bakugo didn't really care. It was just a tree, and he barely used the berries for anything important, anyways.

During the spring and summer the tree was heavy and lush with green leaves, branches weighed down by yellow Sitrus Berries, fat and pear-shaped, speckled with little orange dots. Bakugo picked them and left them in baskets in his house, the fruits serving no purpose other than to be snacks for his Vulpix, Arcanine, and Houndoom. (Cyndaquil was a spoiled bitch and only ate Tamato Berries.) Sometimes Midoriya came around to gather the extra berries, the dedicated trainer wannabe he was, but for the most part, the tree sat there. And grew. And Bakugo let it. The berries were nice enough, but he didn't really care much for the tree, not like he cared about his Pokémon, or being a trainer.

Then the berries started disappearing at a faster rate until Bakugo came outside one day to find every single one gone. And it became a battle of pride, not for the fruit.

He hadn't cared at first, but his Pokémon had. Vulpix and Arcanine followed him around all day whining for berries, refusing their regular food. Bakugo had ignored their pleas at first, figuring they'd return to normal within a day or two. They couldn't bug him for longer than that. It was just a few stupid yellow berries.

Bakugo was wrong. Very, very wrong.

He decided he'd had enough when he woke up on the fifth morning of the Sitrus Berry shortage and Arcanine and Vulpix were burning down his kitchen in a fit of rage. Midoriya, bless him, was already scrambling around inside with his Bulbasaur, trying to douse the flames (and failing miserably). "Kacchan! Help!" Midoriya had shrieked, waving his arms wildly at the smoldering table, as if that would do anything.

"What the fuck?! Did you do this, Deku?!"

"It wasn't me! It was your Vulpix and Arcanine!"

Vulpix squeaked innocently in the corner, mouth still smoking. Next to it, Arcanine shrank behind the burning cabinet, eyes closed.

(They weren't allowed to come home for six hours.)

"I think they were hungry," Midoriya said when the kitchen was safely drenched and they were a good several meters away from the house, waiting for the smell of smoke to fade. "When I walked by on my way to town they were making a lot of noise, and when I went inside your Vulpix was inside your pantry."

Bakugo sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Jesus, those idiots. I could kill them, I swear."

Midoriya just shrugged, knowing Bakugo cared too much about the Pokémon to actually follow through on the threat. "Well, I'll be off. See you later." He turned on his heel and set off down the road, his Bulbasaur following behind, a dopey smile on its face. Bakugo watched the two of them go before turning back to his house, eyes landing on the Sitrus Berry tree.

Oh.

_Oh_.

Now things made sense.

He finally thought to ambush Midoriya on the other trainer's daily trip to his house. If anyone was taking his berries, the green-haired boy was his prime suspect. He was the only person who routinely visited Bakugo, and the only person who ever stole his berries (other than his little shit of a Vulpix).

"Have I been taking your berries?" Midoriya frowned and tapped his chin, eyes glazing over as he thought. "Well, I have, I always have, but I haven't been taking more than I usually do. You know I leave you at least half every time." He blinked over at the tree, which was still depressingly bare. "I noticed there weren't as many fruits, but I figured _you_ were just taking more than usual. You're saying it wasn't you? I haven't seen anyone else come by, and the fruits looked like they'd been picked by a person, not a Pokémon."

"You better not be shitting me, Deku," Bakugo snarled, examining the branches of the tree. They had, as Midoriya had said, been cut cleanly, suggesting it wasn't the work of a hungry Pokémon. "You didn't see anyone?"

"Nope," Midoriya said, eyes wide with genuine confusion. "Do you want me to ask around town?"

"No," Bakugo growled, letting go of his tree. "I'll fuck the asshole up myself." At Midoriya's baffled, huge-eyed stare, he waved a hand to dismiss the other boy. "Oi, it'll be fine. I'll just break their nose a little bit."

"I don't think you can break someone's nose 'a little bit', you know. Be careful, will you?"

Bakugo cracked his knuckles. "Want to test that out?"

Unsurprisingly, Midoriya scampered away, screaming his head off. Bakugo watched him disappear down the road with mild satisfaction and turned back to his tree, bending to scratch the head of his Houndoom. "You're a pissy little brat," he said fondly, rubbing the Pokémon's ears. Houndoom let out a noise that might have been a purr and butted Bakugo's shin. "Yeah, okay, fine, I'll get your goddamn berries. We'll just have to catch the person who's stealing 'em. Now go make sure Arcanine isn't pissing under the table again, will you."

Houndoom went trotting off, leaving Bakugo to sigh and lay a hand on the trunk of the tree. "You're a shitty tree," he said, patting the bark awkwardly. "Berries are stupid, anyways. Potions work so much better."

(Bakugo didn't really mean it. Part of him had grown fond of the little tree.)

He fell silent when an unfamiliar figure appeared between the trees and stood slowly, backing towards his house. He slipped through the front door quietly and shut it, moving to crouch by the front window. The person, features hidden by a black cloak, walked closer still, stepping onto Bakugo's lawn without an ounce of hesitation. They paused for a moment, and Bakugo thought, _ah, must be some curious traveling trainer_ , but then the person stepped right up to the window and _stuck their hand into his tree's branches_.

"Oi!" Bakugo's yell came out as an mortifying shriek, but he fought off the mounting embarrassment and scrambled outside, snatching up the net propped up against the wall by the front door as he ran. The person turned to face him just as he smashed the net into the person's face. "Get away from my tree, asshole!" Rage coursed through him, and he kicked the person to the ground, bashing the net into their head a second time.

"Ow, stop it!" The person kicked him in the ankles, hard enough that Bakugo toppled and hit the ground with a heavy thud, breath rushing out of his lungs in a forceful exhale. Groaning, Bakugo rolled onto his side and watched, dazed, as the person tossed their hood back and struggled to sit up. One blue eye and one gray eye watched him warily as the stranger (who appeared to be a boy about his age) inched away. "I didn't even do anything," he said indignantly, running a hand through multicolored hair. There was a scar stretching across the left side of his face, red, an awful lot like a burn mark. How in the world he'd gotten a burn mark there, Bakugo didn't know.

_He looks ridiculous_ , was Bakugo's first thought.

_Aw, dammit, he's pretty_ , was the second.

_Wait, the berries_ came third.

"The fuck are you doing?" Bakugo staggered to his feet, wincing at the stab of pain that pricked at the back of his head, and pointed his net at the boy's face. The unfamiliar boy blinked owlishly at it, eyes going slightly cross-eyed. "Oi, answer me!"

"Picking berries?" the boy said slowly, brushing those stupid red and white strands of hair out of his face. "I've got a Gym battle soon, and I'm out of Potions."

"Go buy some, dipshit!" Bakugo screeched, raising the net threateningly. A rush of vindictive satisfaction rushed through him when the boy cowered. "The town's, like, four minutes away! Go walk there!"

"But your berries are right here," he said. "I've been picking them for a few days, and they work just fine."

"A few days!" Bakugo swung the net again and missed when the boy rolled away, throwing his cloak at Bakugo's face. Bakugo swatted it aside with an angry growl. "It was you stealing my fucking berries!"

The boy held his hands up. "Back where I came from, berries are free game. Anyone can take from any tree if it's there."

"This isn't where you came from!"

He shrugged. "I'm really sorry. I didn't know Bug Catchers don't share their berries."

_Bug Catchers?_

"Excuse me?!" Bakugo shouted. The boy cowered when he brandished his net again. "Did you call me a fucking Bug Catcher?! Do you have a fucking death wish, piece of shit?"

"You..." His expression twisted in genuine confusion. "You have a net...oh! Are you a Bug Maniac?" He shuffled around for a moment and pulled out a couple of Pokéballs. "Let's battle! I need experience."

"I'm not a Bug _anything_ , you moron!" Bakugo threw the net at the trainer. The handle hit his shoulder and bounced into the grass rather depressingly. "I can have a net if I feel like it! Doesn't make me a Bug Catcher!"

"Why do you have a net, then? Are you an _aspiring_ Bug Catcher? Maybe you hope to be one?"

Bakugo was changing his mind—this guy was not pretty at all. He was a petty bitch. "I've got a Vulpix, for your information."

"Ah, the puniest Fire type."

"And a Cyndaquil!"

"Second puniest."

Bakugo gritted his teeth, balling his fists. Anger was bubbling up inside him, but strangely enough, it was light, fluffy, not as fierce as it usually was. _Teasing_. The boy was teasing. Bakugo forced himself to relax his shoulders and grumbled, "Well, what do you have against Fire types? Anything to do with that scar of yours?"

The trainer tilted his head, lips parting, then he coughed sheepishly and looked away, eyes narrowing. "A Charizard coughed in my face when I was a kid," he mumbled, scratching the back of his neck.

Bakugo barked out a laugh and bent down to grab the cloak, flinging it towards the boy. "Must have been a shitty Charizard. But seriously, don't fuckin' touch the berries. My Pokémon are going to flip their shit if they don't have one of those damn Sitrus Berries soon."

"They were going to get eaten. If you leave Sitrus Berries for too long they'll get too ripe and make your Pokémon sick, because worms live on Sitrus Berry tree leaves and they always go for ripe berries." The boy shrugged one shoulder. "I just didn't want them to go to waste."

"Oh..." Bakugo deflated. "Oh. Okay. I see."

"It's fine, I basically stole them anyways." Bakugo blinked at the pale hand stretched towards him. "Nice to meet you. I'm Shoto Todoroki."

Bakugo nodded sharply, taking a step back. "Katsuki Bakugo," he grunted. _Screw this, never mind, he's not a petty bitch. Normal people shouldn't be this attractive. Ah, fuck, am I blushing? I'm blushing, aren't I, dammit_. He swallowed hard and tried to stop the burning in his face, turning away.

"There's a pair of trainers down the road," Todoroki said, jerking his thumb over his shoulder. Bakugo looked back up, intrigued. "I think they want to do a double battle with two on each side. Want to come?"

"Sure," Bakugo found himself saying. Before Todoroki's smile could get too wide, he snapped, "Only because I'm gonna fucking show you I'm not a damn Bug Catcher."

"Your Cyndaquil's probably so tiny it could qualify as a Bug Pokémon anyways."

Twenty painful minutes and about four Potions later, Bakugo finally let himself collapse onto the ground with a groan. Todoroki stood over him, counting money. "This is enough to buy me dinner," he said, nothing in his voice indicating sarcasm. Bakugo rolled onto his back and looked up at Todoroki, glaring.

"Why the fuck did she have a level fifty Toxicroak?!" Bakugo growled as he remembered the nonchalant green-haired trainer, dressed in a simple white dress. Unassuming. He never would have thought that that she'd have such high-level Pokémon. And if that wasn't enough, the brown-haired girl with her brought along a Snorlax. "That was a nightmare."

Todoroki frowned, clearly unimpressed. "You tried to use Flamethrower on her Frogadier."

"I didn't know it was resistant!"

"It looks like a literal frog. And it's _blue_."

"Okay, fine, maybe that was a misjudgement on my part. But you used all the Potions we had on your stupid Glaceon. It still had half of its health, and now my Vulpix is gonna faint from Poison damage!" Bakugo groaned and buried his face in his hands. "Fuck, I've got to make another trip to the fucking Pokémon Center."

"You should say something other than 'fuck', it gets repetitive after a while." Todoroki knelt next to him. "Bring your Vulpix out."

"But it needs rest."

"Just bring it out."

Bakugo sighed and pulled out the Pokéball with his Vulpix in it, handing it to Todoroki. "All yours." He watched as Todoroki opened it single-handedly and caught the Vulpix in one arm, other hand digging in his pocket.

"Don't worry," Todoroki said, catching Bakugo's eye. "It'll be fine." He produced a tiny pink berry and held it out to the Vulpix, who eagerly lapped it up. Bakugo's eyes went wide when he realized it had stopped trembling, and, reaching out to touch it, its heartbeat had calmed. Todoroki laughed at his amazement. "Berries can cure poison, you know that, right? Still favor your beloved Potions?"

"That's what Full Heals are for," Bakugo said stubbornly, crossing his arms.

Todoroki stiffened abruptly and grabbed Bakugo's wrist, hauling him several steps backwards. Bakugo opened his mouth to shout but paused when he noticed Vulpix twitching in the grass, ears smoldering. "What the fuck did you feed my Vulpix?" he breathed, backing away along with Todoroki towards the edge of the path.

"I didn't do anything, it's evolving."

_Oh_. Well, his Vulpix had been around the right level, but he hadn't expected it here, out in the forest, of all places. Bakugo squinted into the white light that exploded from the tiny creature, stunned into silence by Todoroki's sudden, exhilarated laughter. He peeked over at the other boy in time to see his face lit up, eyes shining, grinning so widely his chapped lips had started bleeding. He glanced over at Bakugo and almost _giggled_ , childishly amazed.

Bakugo smiled back.

By the time he looked back over there was a Ninetales slumped on the ground, whining in a way that Bakugo understood was its plea for food and belly rubs. "That was anticlimactic," he said, stepping forward to rub its ears.

"It was cool," Todoroki whispered. Bakugo snorted and tugged the Pokéball out of Todoroki's hand, returning his Ninetales to it as Todoroki kept talking, a little louder this time. "I meant it. I like seeing Pokémon evolutions."

Bakugo turned to study Todoroki, his hair (now tousled), his eyes, the quirk of his lips into the faintest smirk. "You're a weird person. Good luck in your Gym battle."

(And if he ran off, blushing far too furiously than he should have, that was just for him to know.)

"You're in a good mood today, Kacchan," Midoriya remarked on his morning visit the next day, examining the Sitrus Berry tree. "Your tree's in good condition, anyways, the berries should be growing again in a few days!" He sat back and looked at Bakugo, who was sitting on the front steps to his house, fiddling with the net in his hands. "So why're you so happy? I know it's not because of the tree."

"Nothing," Bakugo huffed, closing his eyes. They flew open a moment later, landing on Midoriya. "You know that guy who was stealing my berries? Turns out he was just picking them so the worms didn't eat them."

"Worms?"

"Yeah, y'know, the ones on the leaves."

Midoriya opened his mouth, closed it, and opened it again. "Excuse me?"

"What?"

They stared at each other for another ten seconds before Midoriya's eyes finally lit up. "Who told you that?"

"The guy who was taking them."

Midoriya's eyebrows furrowed, the corner of his mouth twitching, and he snickered into one hand. "Bakugo, Sitrus Berry trees don't have worms. The wood is too hard for them to burrow in, and the leaves aren't thick enough. Sitrus Berries can stay ripe for a while, anyways, they're pretty tough."

"...I'm sorry, what?"

"Todoroki!"

Todoroki looked up and smiled, waving. "Hey, Bakugo! You ran off so suddenly, last time, but I thought I'd drop by and say hi, and—" he broke off, frowning. "What's the matter?"

Bakugo halted halfway down the trail, net in hand. "You lied to me," he seethed, practically boiling with rage. "You said you picked the berries so they didn't get eaten."

"Well, I might have fibbed a little, but I thought you would get mad if I said I just stole them," Todoroki pointed out, hands going to grab at the hem of his shirt. "Anyways, I won my Gym battle, but my Glaceon got hurt, and the Pokémon Center's closed, so could I have another few berries?"

Bakugo paced forward and swatted him over the head with the net. "You picked them all, bastard! There's none left!" When Todoroki simply stared at him, baffled, Bakugo sighed. Softer, he added, "You won your Gym battle?"

"Yeah."

"Ah...nice."

Todoroki nodded and glanced off towards the trees at the edge of the path leading towards Bakugo's house. "Sorry about the berries again. I really didn't know."

"It's fine, I don't like them much anyways." Bakugo coughed into his fist, clearing his throat. The irritation he'd first felt at the thought that he'd been fooled had melted away already, leaving him at a loss as to what to do next. He bared his teeth in a half-hearted snarl and muttered, "You're still a piece of shit."

Todoroki's expression turned amused. "Thanks, Bakugo."

"Anyways, the double battle the other day..." Bakugo stuffed his hands into his pockets. "It was kinda fun."

Todoroki seemed to understand that Bakugo was reluctant to ask outright, because he chuckled before he said, "Want to do it again some time? With proper knowledge of type advantages?"

"...Come with you, you mean?"

Todoroki's eyes flashed—he was clearly surprised—but he nodded anyways, head tilted. "I was thinking of a few practice battles, but a travel buddy would be nice, I guess. I mean, I know we don't really know each other, and usually people travel with friends, but—"

"I'll go." Bakugo cut him off. "I don't care if we don't know each other. Doesn't matter."

Todoroki tilted his head back to look up at the sky. "Ha, I can't wait to write to my mom and tell her I've finally made a friend." The glint in his eye was bright, blinding, washing away any sense of rationality Bakugo had left. "She'll be thrilled to hear I'm not a social hermit anymore."

"Who said we were friends?" Bakugo hissed, but his retort had no real heat behind it.

"I'd like to be, at least. We could go traveling together, you know? Catch new Pokémon? Battle other Gyms? It'll be fun. I've never had a trainer friend before."

_Ah, fuck, that's cute_.

And that was how Bakugo made his second running retreat, ears burning so much he was certain Todoroki would be able to see.

It was only the next morning when he got up at the crack of dawn when Bakugo saw Todoroki again, standing on his doorstep with a well-rehearsed apology for stealing berries/invitation to go fuck up some amateur trainers and a basket of the Sitrus Berries he'd been stealing for the past few days. And of course Bakugo agreed, because despite the fact that he barely knew the guy, there was something magnetic about standing next to him. Terrifying.

Bakugo loved it. Todoroki's disgusting hair, two-toned eyes, his awkward little smile, Bakugo loved it already, and he wanted to see it for more than the two days he'd already had.

"Let's go kick ass," he said simply, opening the door and cutting off whatever apology Todoroki had been prepared to say.

Todoroki blinked at him for a full four seconds, glowing in the light of the rising sun. The left side of his mouth lifted. "With your temper and appalling lack of common sense, I'd say we're going to be the ones getting our asses kicked."

And then Bakugo laughed, and Todoroki laughed too, and it was _nice_.

(They returned one year later in late spring, and the tree was bright, decorated with Sitrus Berries, and Bakugo mused to himself that maybe he didn't hate it so much after all.)


End file.
